Antony stung by trade union boycott: Vayalar Ravi

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Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi has said that Defence Minister A K Antony made his statement during the inauguration of a new unit at BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd following the boycott of the programme by various trade unions.

He said that the CPM would be considering Antony’s statement as lucky, at a press conference held here. Ravi said that Antony had brought various Defence programmes to the state and the boycott of the programme by various trade unions has hurt him. That was the reason behind Antony’s statement, he said, refusing to comment whether the allegations raised by the Defence Minister were right.

He stated that his views about the government and its development policy are not akin to that of Antony’s.

“Elamaram Kareem could not bring any industrial development during his tenure as the Industries Minister and I never felt that he was a good Minister. The LDF has always created hurdles for development. When Antony was the Chief Minister, VS and the CPM were against all the development projects in the state. This year also the CPM was against the ‘Emerging Kerala’ project. The CPM’s anti-development stand is the sole reason why the investors are not ready to come to the state,” he opined.

Meanwhile, he said that there are disparities between the various allies of the UDF over the Defence Minister’s statement. It will be solved through talks and he added that the Chief Minister will be up front about bringing in unity in the UDF.

He also pointed out that there are no issues that cannot be solved with talks between the state government and the DMRC over the Kochi Metro Rail project. He expressed his hope that the project will be back on track once the DMRC and the government hold discussions.